With Heather Long, CNN’s Senior Markets and Economy Writer
Last week we spoke with Heather Long, CNN’s Senior Markets and Economy Writer, to discuss Hillary Clinton’s economic policy (click here for the interview). This week we again asked Heather to bring her insight to examine Trump’s ideas and how you would be financially impacted under his economic platform.
As a brief recap of last week’s segment, we compared Trump’s economic message of “America first” and Hillary’s as “families first”. While Donald Trump wants to start on day one by tackling our trade policy, Hillary’s primary goal in the first 100 days is to bump up infrastructure spending.
To further expand on the comparison of their individual tax platforms, Hillary said she would raise taxes on those earning over $250,00, while Trump said he would cut taxes across the board, both for individuals and for corporations. He’s also on record wanting to do away with estate tax and lowering capital gains tax, which would be a boon to US businesses but also would, in effect, mean a lot less revenue for the government. Whether or not this would stimulate the economy, as Trump says it would, is a matter of some debate.
Trump has also been widely quoted as saying that the US is the big loser in trade deals, particularly with Mexico and China which he wants to reverse by taxing goods coming in from those countries. Of course, this will have an effect at the consumer level with higher prices at the store and, in addition, will most likely result in those same countries imposing their own taxes on goods and services from the US. (Some economists fear the result could be a trade war, such as preceded the Great Depression.) Clinton also has spoken about imposing tariffs on trade, although to a somewhat lesser degree.
Would these tariffs bring jobs back to the US, as Trump declares? Many economists think this to be a bit of magical thinking. It may indeed take manufacturing away from China and Mexico only to be moved to other parts of Asia or Africa, instead.
Regarding issues most relevant to women, Trump has proposed a bigger tax credit to offset the cost of childcare and eldercare. A problem with this, says Heather, is that many lower-income families don’t incur enough income tax to be helped by this credit; however, Trump has also come out saying the credit could be used against payroll tax, which has to do with Social Security. Donald Trump has also stated that he wouldn’t touch Social Security or Medicare, but he has winked at some entitlement cuts.
If this all sounds a bit murky, bear in mind that we’re riding along on the presidential election trail and candidates will continue to make promises and to modify those promises, right up to the moment when he or she places his or her hand on the Bible to assume the Presidency of the United States. Then we the people will witness what happens with every presidential election platform, no matter how well-intentioned or well-planned, as it either partially survives or is swallowed up by the forces of reality in Congress and the world stage. Then we likely will get something like that box of chocolates in Forrest Gump’s lap.
On September 22 at The Boca Raton Renaissance Hotel, Steve Pomeranz invites all interested parties to an open discussion of what the outcome of this presidential election means to your money, your portfolio, and your financial future. Click here to sign up.
Read The Entire Transcript HereCollapse Transcript
Steve Pomeranz: On September 22, I will be inviting you all to join me in person as I discuss what this presidential election means to your money and your finances, and I'll talk more about that in detail a...
